Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Social Media Responsibility

03/05/2015 at 9:18am EST

from David Shoalts of the Globe and Mail,

Upon further review, Dion Phaneuf, Elisha Cuthbert and Joffrey Lupul would like to see something positive spring from the Twitter firestorm that engulfed them this week. Something that will educate people about the perils of social media, according to their lawyer.

And then there are people like me who believe this will never happen until the person who started this particular contretemps with a defamatory tweet about the two Toronto Maple Leafs players and Phaneuf’s wife and all the other Internet offenders are figuratively nailed to the legal cross.

If anything, the events on social media this week, from the Leafs tweet that exploded on TSN’s NHL trade-deadline show to a similar controversy with the Chicago Blackhawks to the vile comments about Curt Schilling’s daughter when the former baseball pitcher praised her on Twitter, show that people need to realize Twitter, Facebook, Instagram et al. are not private conversations between a few people but a public forum where they have a legal responsibility to make sure they do not libel anyone.

Journalists were bound by this obligation long before the Internet opened a worldwide forum to everyone with a keyboard or a smartphone. But too many bloggers, tweeters, citizen journalists or whatever else they like to be called are too slow to realize they now have the same responsibility.

You cannot casually repeat some scurrilous rumour making its way around the Web forums without opening yourself to legal action.

continued

Create an Account

In order to leave a comment, please create an account.

About Kukla's Korner Hockey

Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

From breaking news to in-depth stories around the league, KK Hockey is updated with fresh stories all day long and will bring you the latest news as quickly as possible.

Email Paul anytime at [email protected]